Newsbrief:
Peruvian
Coca
Growers
Mobilizing
Again
12/10/04
Frustrated by the Peruvian government's unwillingness or inability to address their grievances over forced coca eradication, Peruvian coca grower organizations were on the move this week. While the Peruvian cocalero (coca grower) movement is riven by regional, personal, and ideological divides, it appeared unified this week in its anger at the continuing problems. In Ayacucho Sunday, more than 5,000 coca growers came together in a massive meeting to demand an end to the forced eradication of their crops, according to Peruvian press reports. Streets in the center of the provincial capital were blocked by "a human sea," Correo reported. Sponsored by the Federation of Agricultural Producers of the Rio Apurimac Valley (FEPAVRAE), the "Meeting on the Problematic of Coca Leaf and Agricultural Products" brought together coca growers from some 310 communities in the Apurimac Valley. "No to the Eradication of Coca," was the battle cry of the event, heard echoing through the streets of Ayacucho as the meeting adjourned and the peasants hit the streets. In addition to leaders of FEPAVRAE, the meeting heard from Elsa Malpartida, a leader of the National Confederation of Agricultural Producers and Cocaleros, as well as regional labor and popular leaders. The same day, in Aguaytia, 2,000 more cocaleros organized in the Association of Farmers and Coca Leaf Producers of San Antonio Abad marched through the streets of that provincial city carrying placards and vowing struggle "without truce," according to Peru 21. They, too, were demanding an end to forced eradication and explicitly rejecting the alternative development schemes of the national anti-drug agency, DEVIDA. The alternative development schemes have failed to deliver, cocalero leaders complained. Farmers who have agreed to shift from coca to other crops have received no benefit, they said. Association leader Flavio Sanchez Moreno told the crowd the government must find a new way of dealing with drugs and not just try to solve the problem by destroying coca crops. "We are discontented with the agrarian policy and we are not going to allow the cocaleros to continue to be deceived because there is no interest in solving the problems of the peasants," he said. Also in attendance was national confederation leader Nancy Obregon, who announced that a strike of cocaleros in Huanuco and Tingo Maria had begun that same day. The strike came because the government had failed to reach an accord with cocaleros, said Obregon. That strike was scheduled to last 48 hours. Compared to neighboring Bolivia, the Peruvian coca growers' movement may be weak and divided, but given enough inaction by the Peruvian government, the movement appears on the way to reactivating itself.
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